Penalize Stuart For Ethics Violation

February 2, 1994

Despite what Business and Professional Regulation Secretary George Stuart thinks, he is not above the state's ethics law.

Stuart was the subject of an investigation by the state Commission on Ethics, which received a complaint that when he was a state senator in 1988, he tried to get a bond contract from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority for an investment banking company that employed him.

Stuart argued that he avoided representing clients before state agencies during his 12 years in the Senate, but that he thought it was OK to represent them before local agencies.

The ethics commission thought otherwise.

Last week, it voted 4-3 against Stuart, determining that the expressway authority was created by the Legislature and was therefore a state agency.

Rather than admit he was wrong, Stuart, an Orlando Democrat, countered that the allegations against him were made by a Republican opponent and were false and politically motivated.

To add salt to the wound, Stuart said the ethics panel had "no authority to determine what the Constitution is saying. This body has no authority to do anything to us."

Wrong, Mr. Stuart.

While the ethics commission has been little but a paper tiger, it finally has done something right. And you are not untouchable just because you head a state agency.

The matter now goes before the Senate, which must decide whether to penalize Stuart for the violations.

Senators should be careful not be influenced by political forces. They should slap a heavy penalty on Stuart as a warning that anyone - even a Cabinet member - who violates the ethics law will pay the price.